


Sparkle Serum

by IncurablePeppermint



Series: Sparkle Science [2]
Category: UniKitty! (Cartoon)
Genre: Co-workers, F/F, Fluff, For Science!, Trans, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 23:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16377314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncurablePeppermint/pseuds/IncurablePeppermint
Summary: Dr. Fox exhausts herself while working on a new serum and Hawkodile confronts her about overworking.





	Sparkle Serum

**Author's Note:**

> If you have not read the first of this series you can read this and understand, just check the end notes first!

Dr. Fox gives a soft yawn. She’s been working hard at her latest sparkle matter research for a few weeks now. And working hard, to her, means overworking. Spending late nights in the lab. Sneaking around to get fresh samples. Setting her alarm for only half an hour after she flops onto her bed, body sore. Sleep is for the weak. Caffeine fuels the strong.

She takes a bit of sparkle matter out of the jar labelled ‘Hawkodile:OLD’ and sets it on the counter. She very carefully fills her glass dropper with a lime-green liquid and then painfully slowly drips a single drop onto the center of the tiny yellow lightning bolt. It sizzles for a moment, then turns into a tiny block that moves in a gradient between a forest green and a sunny, happy yellow. 

Dr. Fox gasps and picks it up, looking it over. “Ooh... It’s perfect.” She quickly sets the block down and starts scribbling down notes on her clipboard. “If I can replicate this result... Then I’ll have created a serum that shows Sparkle Cores without a big, clunky machine. And then doctors can check for chips and cracks and color shifts  _ so easily _ ! I’ll be named  _ Queen of Science _ !” She laughs manically, half in excitement and half due to exhaustion. 

She grabs another piece of sparkle matter, this time out of a jar labeled simply ‘Hawkodile’ and ends up with a little pink venus symbol. She smiles and turns it over in her paw. Inventing a serum like this will also help people like her friends. Like Hawkodile and Feebee. If they get curious about their Sparkle Core they can just buy a bottle of it and do a test in the privacy of their own home. 

And hopefully it’ll become normal to check, even if someone isn’t questioning their identity. They can take a look to see what exact color they are. Cores come in a variety of hues and making it easier to test for the color will make it easier to prove to unscientific  _ fools  _ like Master Frown that they aren’t just pink and blue. 

She sets the sparkle matter down and repeats the experiment. With a little popping noise it changes into a tiny block, this time just yellow. Dr. Fox hums excitedly and bounces ever so slightly on her stool. Successful again. This formula seems to finally be what she’s been looking for. 

She takes out an empty jar and sets the two blocks inside, then seals it with a large cork. All there is left to do today is see if there are any changes to the Core-shaped sparkle matter bits over time. She wouldn’t want to send out a notice that she’s made a breakthrough only to find that her serum  _ actually  _ makes big, gooey monsters that eat hopes and dreams. Not _ again _ .

She yawns once more when she’s finished putting all of her jars up away. “Just a few more notes and I’ll take a power nap,” she says to no one but herself. Dr. Fox double checks the component list for this iteration of her serum, makes a few hastily scribbled down words look more legible, then wakes up on Unikitty’s couch with a super soft blanket wrapped around her.

“What?”

Dr. Fox wipes the sleep from her eyes then sits up and starts reaching around for her glasses. She finds them carefully set out on the side table. She must have fallen asleep. which  _ does _ make sense. Even if she’s a really smart, really powerful scientist she does eventually, unfortunately need to rest. 

She pops her glasses on and then checks her watch. “Oh my! I’ve got to check on my experiment!” She hurriedly tosses the blanket to the side, ending up stuck in it for a moment before managing to free herself. Then she gets to her feet and jogs towards her lab, a little too groggy for an all-out run.

Hawkodile spots her in the hallway and stands in the way, right in front of the door to her lab. Darn it. “Dr. Fox, you’re awake. Are you feeling alright?” 

“I’m doing fine, I just need to get to my lab.”

“Alright, but I’m coming with you.”

“Fine, just let me-... Wait, what?”

“W-Well you passed out in your lab, I just want to make sure you don’t overwork yourself again.”

Dr. Fox looks up at her and then peeks around into the lab. She barely processes the hearts and shurikens that shoot out of Hawkodile’s head as she nervously rubs one of her big, buff arms. “Rest is for the weak, Hawkodile, I have science to do.” Dr. Fox tries to loop past Hawkodile only to be scooped up and carried like a potato sack into her own lab. “You put me down!”

“Not until you promise you’ll actually rest. I’m the kingdom bodyguard and I’ll protect everyone from anything, even science.”

Dr. Fox groans. This is an important discovery that can’t be put off because one fox is a  _ little _ extremely sleep deprived. Doesn’t she realize that this is for  _ her _ ? A confused expression slaps itself onto Dr. Fox’s face. Is this for  _ Hawkodile _ ? This is supposed to be for awards and recognition and  _ science _ .

“Fine. I’ll go to sleep tonight.”

“For a full eight hours?”

“ _ Eight hours _ ? Oh, come on, that only leaves me sixteen hours for science.”

“No, it leaves you less than that. Because you’re going to take breaks and sit down to eat instead of living off of coffee and sugar bars.”

“ _ What _ ?”

“Dr. Fox you passed out on your desk! You drooled all over your notes.”

She gasps, “My notes!” Dr. Fox struggles until she pops out of Hawkodile’s grasp, then runs over to her clipboard that is still sitting on the table she was writing at last night. Several words on the first two pages are smudged to the point that they can’t be read and down to the third page a large drool stain has warped the paper. She grimaces. “I guess you’re right, Hawkodile. I need to pace myself. I can’t risk losing any important research to drool.”

Hawkodile nods. “If there’s anyway I can help with your experiments, maybe I could speed things up? I mean, I’m not like a scientist or anything. But if you need a subject or some fancy chemical I could go find.”

Dr. Fox looks over at her and smiles warmly. “Actually, if you could find a few people to run a non-invasive experiment on...” she stops talking as Hawkodile’s jaw drops. Dr. Fox lifts an eyebrow, confused. “What, what is it?” Before Hawkodile can answer something clinks against Dr. Fox’s head. She catches it and looks down to see it’s a piece of heart sparkle matter. “A  _ crush _ ? I don’t have  _ time _ for a crush! I might have  _ just _ made a huge breakthrough!”

“Well, I guess...” Hawkodile takes a break to swallow hard, as if she’s nervous for some reason. “You just have to figure out who it’s on and tell them about it before it’s  _ unbearable not knowing _ \- I mean, before the hearts get in the way of your experiment.”

Dr. Fox nods. Then she shakes her head and hurries over to her sparkle matter shelves. “I almost forgot about checking on my experiment!” She pulls out the jar with the two tiny Sparkle Core replicas and opens it up. She runs back over to the table, clears space, and dumps them out, checking on them. “Alright, they haven’t morphed since yesterday...” She pokes them and tosses them gently about like glittering, unnumbered dice. They make gentle twinkling noises. “Noise is typical of sparkle matter.”

Hawkodile comes up beside her and looks at her experiment with a creased forehead. “Is that... Er.. Are those my Sparkle Core?”

“Yes! Sort of. They’re actually pieces of your sparkle  _ matter _ . I’ve been working on a serum that will remove the emotion from sparkle matter, leaving only the  _ essence _ of the person who emitted it behind. In other words, a representation of their Core. That way, Cores can be checked without the use of that big machine we put you in! I diluted down sparkle matter from all sorts of emotions and have been trying to get the right mixture together for  _ weeks  _ now. And I’ve been using your sparkle matter as the test material because I know what your Core looks like and can double check the accuracy with old and new samples!” Dr. Fox breathes heavily, having forced that explanation out as quickly as possible. 

“Whoa, whoa!” Hawkodile suddenly pushes Dr. Fox back and puts her arms up, catching a larger heart as it starts to fall before it can crush Dr. Fox. 

“Hawkodile! You can’t just take the weight of my crush for me, you’ll end up shrinking again!”

“Of course I can! If I can protect you from Doom Lords then I can definitely protect you from some  _ crush _ .” She smiles, trying to seem unfazed, but it’s obvious she’s struggling to hold up the large heart.

“But  _ Hawkodile _ .”

“I’ve got it covered, Dr. Fox. I’m strong enough to- ugh... To handle this.”

Dr. Fox frowns at her friend. Hawkodile has always been stubborn. She let herself get crushed down to bite-size before she bothered confessing her feelings when she faced her own crush problem. And she wanted to face the problem herself instead of getting help. So stubborn, so self-reliant. A brooding persona that hides loyalty and vulnerability if one looks deep enough.

“Dr. Fox, whatever you’re thinking about,  _ stop _ .”

She shakes herself out of a slight daze to find that Hawkodile is leaned up above her and now holding up a second huge heart piece of sparkle matter. She blinks a few times and then reaches up and puts a hand on each side of Hawkodile’s face, squishing her cheeks into her beak. “Hawkodile! _ You’re _ my crush!”

“What?”

The hearts she’s holding up suddenly poof away and she stands up straight, a blush across her beak. She rubs the back of her head nervously. “Don’t you see? The heart appeared when I was talking about your sparkle matter! And... And I’ve been working on Sparkle Core research because of  _ you _ ! I didn’t even think about it, I was so focused on my research.” Dr. Fox suddenly freezes, mouth open as if she plans to keep talking, when she realizes how nonchalantly she just admitted to her crush. Her cheeks burn and a few sweat drop pieces of sparkle matter fall weakly out of her head.

“I uh... Didn’t think you felt that way about me, Dr. Fox.”

“You’re free to forget that I mentioned it. I mean, my symptoms shouldn’t progress now that I-”

“No!” Hawkodile coughs awkwardly, trying to clear the air after calling out so suddenly. “I mean. It’s not a problem.”

“You don’t think that my one-sided affections will get in the way of our professional relationship?”

Hawkodile takes a deep breath. She goes to speak and then ends up pacing. Nervous sparkle matter made up of scribbles, sweat drops, and shurikens escape from her head. Finally, she looks back at Dr. Fox and speaks up, “Dr. Fox. I had- I mean... I  _ have _ a crush on you, too. My symptoms only went away because you let me ‘practice’ admitting my feelings to you.”

“I suppose you  _ did _ have a hike in symptoms in my presence.”

“Of course I did!”

“But this would be a wholly Inappropriate relationship. I mean, we're coworkers!”

“I really don't think Unikitty would mind.”

“But-”

“Dr. Fox. I've been...  _ Nervous _ around you. You make me feel  _ weak _ and I don't understand it. I think if we...” She coughs out, “date,” to obscure the word. “If we do that, then I won't be so weak and nervous and I'll do my job even better.”

Dr. Fox nods, contemplating. If harboring a crush is distracting then pursuing their feelings instead could, theoretically, increase productivity. And decrease job accidents through sweaty-palmed clumsiness. And Dr. Fox just wants an excuse to allow this to happen, so any reason is good enough.

“That  _ does  _ make sense.”

“It does? I mean, uh... Of course it does!” She beams with pride. Then she squats down to Dr. Fox’s level. “So... We’re... Dating now?”

Dr. Fox nods. “Sure! Now let’s celebrate by finishing this experiment.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sparkle Core : An initial hidden building block, colors indicate gender. They come in a wide variety of colors but are most typically seen in versions of blue and pink, leading to a misconception among some people that those are the only colors available. Colors can change over time. Hawkodile's changed from green to yellow while she was considering her identity and deciding to transition
> 
> As mentioned above, Hawkodile is a trans woman in this fic/series, Feebee is also a trans woman


End file.
